CAPITOL LETTERS

Speaker Craddick just officially appointed Terry Keel, officially, to be the official House Parliamentarian - to the tune of $145,000 a year.

That's what Denise Davis was making when she resigned last month - although it's about $20,000-plus more a year than she was when she started in 2003.

At any rate, this isn't too surprising, since Mr. Keel assumed the position upon Denise's dramatic late-session resignation over the whole Absolute Power thing.

His assistant parliamentarian will be the smart, perky Kate Huddleston - who we first met working in his media office in 2003.

That means Craddick didn't hire Ron Wilson, who acted as Mr. Keel's asst parliamentarian at the end of the session --- and, thus, had to put up with accusations on the floor that he was unethical and hadn't paid fines to the commission, etc.

But don't read too much into that. Wilson's an entertainment lawyer in Houston. Who do you think he'd rather represent? Craddick or ZZ Top?

Posted by Karen Brooks at 4:11 PM | Permalink

NOW we know who Gov. Rick Perry was hobnobbing with at this month’s top-secret international meeting of the corporate and political elite known as the Bilderberg Conference. The event was held in Istanbul, Turkey. And the Texas governor was among the invitees this year.

His fellow conference-goers included Henry Kravis, who heads the leading investor group in the $32 billion purchase of TXU. So while the Legislature was debating the deal back home, the governor apparently was with the New York billionaire leading the buyout. TXU is seeking federal approval for the deal. It made headlines during the legislative session, in part because of TXU’s attempt to build more coal-fired generating plants – an effort backed by Mr. Perry.

Others attending the four-day gathering of international movers-and-shakers included neocons Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Pearle, key figures in the Bush administration’s war policy in Iraq. Also Harvard economist Martin Feldstein, a former economic adviser to President Bush. Democratic pollster Peter Hart. Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations. And Henry Kissinger, needs no introduction.
Other titans of industry in attendance were top executives of Microsoft, Google, German-based Siemens, Britain’s Royal Dutch/Shell oil company, Sweden’s Ericsson and the European Central Bank.

The Bilderberg Conference has been held since 1954. The group has inspired conspiracy theories for years among critics on the extreme right who warn it is a prelude to one-world government.

The event itself is all hush-hush (we got the list of participants from a political intelligence newsletter). So we’ll have to speculate on how the dinner talk might have gone in the event the governor from Paint Creek shared a table with, say, Queen Sofia of Spain or the finance minister of Finland or Guido Westerwelle of Germany’s Free Democratic Party (sounds vaguely anti-Craddick).

And uh, no, Paris Hilton wasn't there. She had another commitment.

Posted by Wayne Slater at 3:45 PM | Permalink

From Alexis DeLee, press secretary for Speaker Tom Craddick:
"Speaker Craddick welcomes a review by the Attorney General. During the closing days of the session, Speaker Craddick sought the opinions of constitutional law and rules experts, and the advice was instrumental in the Speaker’s decision to move forward with the business of the session.

"The rules of the Texas House of Representatives do not provide for a motion to conduct a Speaker's race in the midst of a session’s business. Furthermore, the rules are clear with regard to the Speaker’s power of recognition.*

"Speaker Craddick acted correctly under the House Rules, the Texas Constitution, and was consistent with traditions of parliamentary practice. But more importantly, the citizens of this state were well-served in that the important business of the legislature prevailed over the internal politics of a speaker’s race."

*House Rule 1, Section 9 reads, “Responses to parliamentary inquiries and decisions of recognition made by the chair may not be appealed.” House Rule 5, Section 24 reads, “There shall be no appeal from the speaker’s recognition….[the speaker decides] if recognition is to be granted.”

Posted by Karen Brooks at 3:49 PM | Permalink

Ay, flashback. I'm hearing the voting bell again.

House Ways and Means Until He Gets Busted Chair Jim Keffer is calling on AG Greg Abbott to weigh in, formally and officially, on House Speaker Tom Craddick's use of "absolute authority" to refuse to recognize House members who wanted to remove him from the speaker's chair at the end of the session.

Ah, Greg, you lucky-lucky man.

Rock, meet hard place.

Posted by Karen Brooks at 10:26 AM | Permalink

About the only thing that's managed to get us back on the blog is this great biennial list from our friends at Texas Monthly - and here they are.

Best:
Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas
Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas
Rep. Byron Cook, R
Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville
Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston
Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham
Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson
Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan
Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston
Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands

Worst
Gov. Rick Perry
House Speaker Tom Craddick
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst
Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth
Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa
Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay
Rep. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land
Sen. Eddie Lucio Sr., D-Brownsville
Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston
Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball

Honorable Mention:Rep. Eissler, Sen. Eltife, Rep. Gattis, Rep. Hill, Sen. Hinojosa, Rep. Smithee, Rep. Solomons, Rep. Strama, Rep. Thompson, Sen. Whitmire, "the Insurgents" - Dunnam, Talton, et al

Dishonorable Mention: Reps. Flores, Haggerty, Harper-Brown, Sid Miller, O'Day, Quintanilla, Zedler

Furniture: Reps. Alma Allen, Alonzo, Christian, Farias, Macias, Armando Martinez; Sens. Estes and Mike Jackson

Posted by Karen Brooks at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)